


Red Squares

by Kalloway



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:42:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27914719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalloway/pseuds/Kalloway
Summary: "I made a mess again, didn't I?"
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33
Collections: 31 Days 2020, The Lemonade Cafe





	Red Squares

**Author's Note:**

> for 31 Days, November 11/ this kind of life keeps breaking your heart

Felix was already halfway through the pile of correspondence on his desk when Sylvain bothered making his presence known. It wasn't a surprise; Felix was fairly sure that the first words out of Sylvain's mouth would involve asking how he'd even gotten there. 

The night had not been a good one. Not for Sylvain, at least. He'd turned up midday with a handful of papers and a horse that had just thrown a shoe. From there, it was a string of refusals because no, Felix did not want to go out for drinks or anything else. Sylvain had gone-- 

The middle was blurry, likely for both of them, but it had ended with Felix helping a couple of his soldiers drag Sylvain off the back of a cart and to bed. 

"I made a mess again, didn't I?" Sylvain mumbled as he crossed the room to flop on the chair he always flopped on. 

"Already cleaned up," Felix replied flatly. This was not the first time; he always hoped it would be the last but Sylvain just-- 

"Sorry." 

Felix looked up at the pained tone of Sylvain's voice. 

"If it makes you so miserable, why do you do it?," Felix questioned. Because Sylvain was doing it to himself, after all. He could easily stay in and split a bottle of something in front of a hearth-fire and... And _anything_. 

"I..." Sylvain swore and shifted and stared at the well-worn rug in Felix's study as if it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. 

When they'd been children, they'd played games with the blocks and rings of color on every rug in the place. It was hard, still, to walk normally across a few of them and not stick to certain colors or take a long step over one spot in particular. 

Felix didn't bother to correct himself once he'd pushed his chair back. It seemed silly, but... If Sylvain was going to stare at the floor, then Felix would watch his own steps. 

"You come, you assure your own misery, you apologize, and you mope," Felix said as he crossed the squares in the order that Sylvain had decided nearly two decades prior. Sylvain was the one who came up with most of the games; he was brilliant at them and they'd all been kept busy for hours just with hopping around. 

"Maybe if you came out with me?" 

"Maybe if you stayed in with me." 

Felix said it with a firmness that seemed to surprise Sylvain. Had he truly never offered? He'd always said he'd rather stay in and-- 

Was the implicit invitation always getting lost in... 

In the mazes of the rugs, maybe, and how it usually took one of them being half-dead to ever really talk. 

"You didn't step on any of the red squares." 

"Some things can't be changed," Felix replied with a shrug before looking straight at Sylvain. "Some can." 

Some obviously needed a few more words-- 

And a rug they both knew well.


End file.
